Warning: This post has a disclaimer. All of those who are faint at heart or are hardcore into animal rights, do not proceed reading the rest of this post. The words might be a little graphic, but the pictures are even worse. Read at your own risk.
Alright with that out of the way, let me tell you about the evening I had yesterday...
While going through my daily E-mails yesterday I received one from my farmer friend/mentor Mark. It was mostly about some Farm-to-School stuff we've been working on, however he ended the note with an enticing offer. He was going to start slaughtering his 80 or so chickens that night and I was invited to witness the process.
For those of you who know me well enough, you know that until recently (due to some moose and yummy grouse) I've been a vegetarian for about five years. Now it seems there's this common perception that vegetarians are against the killing of animals, and I'm sure there are many vegetarians out there that are, but that is not why I was a vegetarian. I believe that humans are omnivores and that meat contains many vitamins and nutrients that are key to human health and well being. I became a vegetarian because of my distrust of the growing meat industry. The cows pumped with hormones, the chickens stuffed in cages so tightly they just constantly shit on each other harboring who knows what kind of harmful bacteria, and the corn and soy these animals are forced to eat even though it's completely un-natural and indigestible to them. Those are the reasons why I became a vegetarian.
I must say out here in Montana animals (both game and ranch) are much happier. They eat grass, they roam in fields and in woodlands, they don't get hormone cocktails to fatten them up. I like happy animals. Happy animals are healthy animals. Healthy animals are yummy animals.
Anyways, Mark raised some happy chickens on his farm and now it was time for those happy chickens to die.
I pulled up to Mark's farm yesterday with some anxiety. I've never seen an animal butchered. Would I get grossed out? Would I feel bad for them? I didn't know, but it was time to face my fears. I always say I want to know exactly where my food comes from, this was just a facet to that notion.
Mark butchers the chickens in two mobile trailers. He's developed this whole mobile chicken slaughter process himself. I must say it's pretty ingenious and just another reason why Mark is a badass and my hero. This is a picture of the inside of trailer #1:
Here's a rundown on the whole process....
#1. Chickens are placed upside down in "Kill Cones". Their heads go through the bottom of the cone and then you chop it off. Once the head is off you keep them in the kill cone for a few minutes to drain all the blood.
(I have pictures of this, but I've decided they're a little too gruesome to share. I'm trying to keep this blog PG-13)
#2. The be-headed chickens are put in scalding hot water for a couple minutes to soften the skin so the feathers come out easily.
#3. Chickens are then put in the "Chicken Washer" a cylinder that is full of rubber fingers. The chickens bounce around in there and the rubber fingers remove all the feathers.
#4. The naked chickens are taken to a second trailer where they're gutted.
And that's it. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. I must say while I thought I would be grossed out, I wasn't at all. If I had the chance next time I think I'd even be able to chop the heads off myself instead of just watching. Montana is turning me into more of a badass than I ever thought I would be, and I like it.
Well thanks for bearing with me through my semi-gruesome post. I hope each of you learned something about how chickens go from the field to something what you'd find in the grocery store. Now I leave you with some goofy pictures I took.
Love,
Becky
